Palmetto Boat Center High School Tournament Trail on March 18, 2023 Anderson, SC
For Immediate Release
Media Contacts:
Marty Walker (864-561-2026) at martyw@palmettoboatcenter.com
Palmetto Boat Center High School Tournament Trail on March 18, 2023 Anderson, SC
Palmetto Boat Center Tournament Trails, LLC, will be hosting a tournament at Lake Hartwell in Anderson, SC, on Saturday December 3, 2022. Blast off will be approximately 7:00 am each day. Weigh in for middle school teams will begin at 1:30 pm. High School teams will start at 3:00 pm. The event will be held at the Green Pond Landing & Event Center, which is located at 470 Old Green Pond Road, Anderson, SC 29625. The event is free to the public.
“We are expecting over 175 boats for this weekend’s high school tournament, which equates to 350 students and 175 volunteer adult captains. Of those teams, we are expecting 60 middle school teams to compete” said Marty Walker, Tournament Director and owner of title sponsor Palmetto Boat Center. “High School fishing in the Upstate remains one of the fastest growing activities in school. Fishing is a competitive activity that is open and challenging for everyone.”
The high school anglers will be competing for the heaviest five bass limit, and for a $2,000 scholarship to the winning team.
The event is sponsored by Palmetto Boat Center, Shimano Fishing, Nitro Performance Bass Boats, Phoenix Bass Boats, Tracker Off Road, Mercury Marine, Visit Anderson, and the Anderson County Parks & Recreation Department.
“These student anglers are the future of our sport,” said Walker. “It’s amazing how this trail continues to grow. We see new students participating each year. We have teams from all over the upstate.” Participants from the trail have advanced to college competition with schools such as Lander, Clemson, Erskine, USC, and Emmanuel just to name a few.
The Palmetto Boat Center High School Tournament Trail was established in the fall of 2015 to create a large-scale competitive environment for the high school fishing teams and clubs in South Carolina. The trail filled the need for central coordination and operation of high school tournaments. Too many times, teams were scheduling tournaments at the same time as another school, which reduced participation. In our first full season we held seven tournaments, averaging 125 boats from over 25 high schools in South Carolina.
Now in our seventh full season, the trail consists of eight regular season tournaments, with four groups to manage field size. A middle school division exists to encourage participation from younger competitors. The teams compete for points in each tournament to determine the Anglers of the Year and the School of the Year. The top teams from each division qualify for the end of season three day “Classic” tournament which is an invitational event.
Our regular season events are all sanctioned tournaments by BASS, as qualifying points events towards the BASS Nation High School National Championship. In the summer of 2022, the trail sent four teams to participate in the National Championship that was held on Lake Hartwell.
For more information on the tournament trail, contact Marty Walker at 864-561-2026, martyw@palmettoboatcenter.com.
